Cover Date: August 1994; On Sale Date: June 1994
Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez
A young boy named Holden Blevins arrives at the Quentin Carnival, telling John Blaze that he met the Ghost Rider at a crossroads at midnight. Ghost Rider directed Holden to seek out Blaze, stating that the two of them will help each other. The boy asks him to stop a man called Ice Box Bob, a killer that eats people's souls. Blaze disregards the boy's story, but turns to find that the kid has vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, Clara and Kody go to a local store to buy groceries, surprised to find that the wheelchair bound owner has been holding a package for Clara for over ten years. The owner, Mr. Schenker, then shows Kody a preserved corpse in a prisoner's uniform that he keeps on display.
That night at the Carnival, while Blaze is performing, a young girl is kidnapped by a ghost that carries ice tongs. Around the same time, Clara opens her package in her trailer, a jar of liquid in which floats two pairs of eyes. Calling them the Eyes of the Kristall-Starrer, the orbs jump out of the water and attach themselves to Clara's face. She sees a vision of the corpse in Schenker's store, the body of an electrocuted killer named Ice Box Bob. John sits in his trailer, preparing to go find the missing girl, only to find that his metal casing on his face is no longer needed...his face is healed, repaired by the hellfire that saturates his body. Holden then appears in his trailer, telling him to go after Schenker.
John arrives at Schenker's store and finds the store owner, now able to walk, preparing to execute the young girl. As John blows away bits of the man's body with hellfire, he can almost see the ghost of Ice Box Bob underneath. After Schenker dies, Holden reappears and shows a message left for John, written on the wall in blood - "I know where your kids are!"
THE ROADMAP
John Blaze last appeared in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 23. Ghost Rider last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 51 and appears next in Ghost Rider (1990) # 52.
Blaze's body was cut open in Ghost Rider (1990) # 42, and he received the metal casing on his face and arms in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 15.
Roxanne was killed by Hellgate in Ghost Rider (1990) # 50. In the same issue, John's two children disappeared without a trace. Blaze told Dan that if he ever saw him or the Ghost Rider again, he would kill them. John decided to re-open the Quentin Carnival in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 23.
CHAIN REACTION
For the first time since the reintroduction of the Ghost Rider to the Marvel Universe in 1990, a related series is published without Howard Mackie on board as writer. Following the end of the Spirits of Vengeance title and the return of the Ghost Rider after his "death" during the "Siege of Darkness" storyline, John Blaze was awarded his own series written by Larry Hama in place of Mackie. At this time, Hama had been the long-running writer on Wolverine, one of Marvel's top-selling books in the X-Men franchise. Suffice it to say, Hama certainly took Blaze in a different direction from what Ghost Rider readers were expecting.
With this first issue, Hama set down two key moments for the series right off the bat. The first was a separation from the core Ghost Rider title. Admittedly, this was a brave move. Blaze was historically and thematically tied to the Ghost Rider mythos, and a series that didn't involve the Spirit of Vengeance in some aspect was going to be a hard sell. I give the writer and editors credit for the attempt, because - mainly through the work Mackie did with the character - John WAS strong enough of a character to stand alone. But I think it also doomed the title to poor sales from the start when readers realized that this was going to be much, much different from Spirits of Vengeance. So, other than his one page cameo at the beginning of the story, we're looking at a completely Ghost Rider free series that focuses on John Blaze. Larry Hama told me that when he took the assignment he knew very little about the Ghost Rider and that he felt he shouldn't have to address the character in a book about Blaze - and while I can't fault his logic there, I still think that it gave the series a huge hurdle to overcome.
The second key moment in this issue came in the form of Blaze discarding the "cyborg" look he'd adapted during the "Road to Vengeance" storyarc the year before. To be blunt, fan reaction was terrible for Blaze's new look, with unfavorable comparisons to Deathlok and Cable being made at every turn. Readers HATED what had been done to the character at the end of Mackie's run on Spirits, and in a surprising moment of clarity Marvel reversed the changes at the earliest opportunity away from Mackie's pen. Blaze was back to the character he had been prior to the "Midnight Sons" era, and this alone would have made the book a winner in my book.
But anyway, after the events in Ghost Rider # 50, John has cut ties with his brother and returned to the Quentin Carnival. The weirdness then began in earnest, with Hama introducing one of my favorite villains from the 90's GR era: Ice Box Bob. With the focus on the Carnival, Hama tossed the characters head-first into sideshow oddities, paranormal mysteries, and mythological lore. To some, the book came off as being TOO strange and out there, but I fell in love with the series right from the beginning. My favorite bit from this issue, in fact, is possibly the oddest sight in the series: the eyes of the Kristall-Starrer leaping from a jar and then burrowing into Clara the psychic's arms and face. Gruesome, odd, and cool as shit.
Following John from the end of Spirits was artist Henry Martinez, who had taken on the artistic chores of the ending book right before the "Siege of Darkness". While his Spirits work was fairly above average, he really got the chance to shine on Blaze, adding a layer of darkness and curiosity to the bizarre script that I honestly didn't expect from him.
So, should you track down the Blaze series? A resounding "YES", especially the first three issue arc, which lays out the conflict with Ice Box Bob and the mystery of where John's children have gone. If you like genuinely creepy comics, this series is right up your alley.
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